I don't generally leave a tip if we're just quickly staying overnight in a place. I make sure to leave any used towels in one spot in the bathroom and throw away whatever we've used (soaps, plastic cups, bottles of lotion, shampoo, etc.). Whatever we don't use I leave untouched so the housekeeper knows they can just refill around it. I know they'll have to remake the bed and wipe down the bathroom but that's about it. Whenever we've stayed 2-3 days I request no services during our stay and then leave $5 because I know that, even though I still do a good job cleaning up after us, they're going to have to do a bit more since the room hasn't been vacuumed, dusted, etc. in a few days.

Once DD got sick so we ended up checking out within a few hours of our arrival (We'd planned a weekend at the beach and ended up with 3 out of the 5 of us coming down with the Norwalk virus instead!). Before we left we rinsed her dirty sheets in the tub and left a tip. I felt awful for whoever had to pick those up and take them to the laundry room.

When we were living in temporary quarters after our cross-country move I did tip. We lived in a hotel for 6 weeks and I asked housekeeping to come once per week to change the sheets and towels and do a general cleaning. I swept, wiped all the counter tops and cleaned the kitchen every day so it wasn't very messy to begin with. I'd make sure all our clothes and household things were put away, leave a $10 bill on the counter and get us out of the way for a couple of hours. That might seem low but they didn't do a very good job. After they left we always had to go down to the front desk and ask for a couple rolls of toilet paper or paper towels or dishwasher detergent, etc.

I tip everyday since I found out that housekeeping staff change daily so if you leave a tip at the end the people cleaning your room durning the week aren't tipped. Years ago you used to have the same housekeeper everyday. I tip 2 or 3 dollars a day in regular rooms and $5 a day if staying in an upper priced hotel or in a suite.

They were probably confused by the envelope. We leave $1-2/night out on the nightstand.

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How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. -George Washington Carver

I had never heard of tipping in hotels until I was an adult. It wasn't something my family ever did. (Midwest US, middle income) I think I've only done it once, when we had some health issues while on vacation and (some of) the hotel staff was really helpful. I put the cash in the envelope and wrote something identifying on it; that was the last day of our stay so I assume someone took it.

I would think an envelope marked "housekeeping" would be the safer choice than just leaving cash out. Although it's not very smart, I could imagine someone emptying their pockets onto the desk at night and just walking out of their hotel room for the day with some cash and change left behind that they intend to come back for. If the housekeeping staff assumed it was a tip and took it, they might get into trouble. Maybe in the OP's case, the hotel has had problems with this in the past, and now the staff are only allowed to take an envelope that says something specific on it, like "housekeeping," and aren't allowed to touch something that says anything else, even "tips."

When going to places where gambling is part of the package (Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City) I hand the tips to the housekeeper. Money laying about the room is not to be touched by housekeeping staff. DH once left a small amount of coins on the dresser for a couple of days and the housekeepers cleaned around them-not even moving them to dust under.

Come to think of it-I hand the tips to the housekeepers everywhere we stay unless we check out first thing in the morning before they get there-then I leave a couple of bucks on the dresser.

I usually clip a few dollars to a note stating my thanks and pointing out the little things I appreciated about my stay. Perhaps they don't care that I noticed the extra towels that showed up the second morning, but it just feels better to me to thank them.

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“A real desire to believe all the good you can of others and to make others as comfortable as you can will solve most of the problems.” CS Lewis

I tip because it is an unpleasant job that doesn't pay well. If I can tip my cab driver, hair dresser, nail tech, etc. beyond what they already earn I am not going to see their meager salary as a reason not to tip hotel housekeeping.

I tip because it is an unpleasant job that doesn't pay well. If I can tip my cab driver, hair dresser, nail tech, etc. beyond what they already earn I am not going to see their meager salary as a reason not to tip hotel housekeeping.

Which is fine if you want to do that.

However, I can't tip everyone out there. I just can't. I don't have that kind of money. And "icky job" can't be a criteria. There are a lot of jobs that are done that make my life easier that aren't the most pleasant. But we don't tip all of them.

If people feel led to tip Housekeeping, I'm all for it. Go for it. But that doesn't make those of us who don't lesser people for not doing it.

I usually refuse service until the last day and then leave a tip on the dresser. It's probably more work to clean up after several days of me being there than it would be if they got the chance to tidy up every day. I wouldn't dream of not leaving any tip.